"They had started bombarding us."
 | By Tim Schneider Staff Editor, Opinion |
This is the beginning of a startling, sorrowful chronicle of the first hours of war. Melkozerova, a Ukrainian journalist, takes us through the experience of finding out — just like that — that you are living in an occupied country. "I felt fear crawling in my guts," she writes about learning of Russian President Vladimir Putin's order to invade. "It was as if someone, maybe Mr. Putin himself, had grabbed my heart and squeezed it." |
She calls her grandmother — "a typical Soviet babushka" — and tries to convince her to gather her belongings. Her grandmother isn't interested. "I would rather die in my perfectly decorated flat than in some dirty basement," she replies, quite magnificently. Outside, the city is whirring: People load up their cars and zoom about frenetically. They peer at the sky, fearing Russian fighter jets. |
Here is a city and a country on the brink. Since the start of the invasion, more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been killed — and Russian forces are closing in on Kyiv. It is a hellish situation. Yet, as Melkozerova says, Ukraine is defiant. "We refuse," she writes, "to be ruled by military diktat." |
In its depth of feeling and wry humor, her essay is a testament to Ukrainians' spirit of resistance. And in its conclusion, it distills the moral imperative of the moment. |
"It's not our fight alone," she writes. "So please don't leave us alone to fight it." |
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